We Protect Our Own
by sorrystateofmind
Summary: After hearing about what happened to Abby, Lucy casts a spell that will ensure Bonnie's safety. Other characters involved: Damon, Caroline, Elena and OC - Chris.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own anything.  
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There's a moment of surprise, her eyes widening and her mouth falling open slightly when she sees him. She's just walked into The Grill and he's sitting at the bar with Ric. As usual. His life – or existence, really – is just going on like it usually does and no one, not even the former vampire hunter, has enough decency to stay mad at Damon for more than five seconds for what he did to her. She shouldn't be surprised and she honestly isn't. That doesn't mean that her chest doesn't seize with their betrayal. She's stood still too long, staring, and Damon must feel her eyes drilling into the back of his head because he looks at her over his shoulder.

Her eyes harden as they meet his and her lips purse as if by that simple movement she can keep the tirade she's prepared for him in. Her pulse is racing with the need to do something. He can feel his brain cells prick in preparation for the aneurysm she's sure to inflict on him. He holds his breath, a tense moment of anticipation. Beside him, Alaric looks back at Bonnie only to guiltily look away a moment later. Her jaw tightens and Damon thinks she might just forgo the witchy migraines and go straight for barbecuing his nuts.

And then her face slackens. Her pinning gaze slides from his but he doesn't move an inch. Bonnie walks toward her usual table and sits facing away from him. She takes a calming breath and slowly flips through a menu he knows she's read a thousand times. All of them know it by heart. He sighs exasperatedly. As much as he doesn't want to be set on fire today or any other day, he'd rather it be done when he was expecting it and when someone, namely Ric, could snap Bonnie out of her rage before she ends up killing him. Besides, Judgy and he work together more often than not lately. He'd never admit it but he'd even started to count on her seeing as how aside from him and Alaric, she's the only useful member of the Scooby Doo gang.

His chair scrapes across the floor when he stands up. He has to confront her now so they can move past this and go back to being… partners.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Alaric says deliberately.

"And why's that?" He shrugs and downs his shot.

Damon waits for a moment and when it becomes clear that Alaric isn't going to enlighten him, he saunters over to her table and slides in across from her. He expects her heart rate to spike again but it actually decreases until it's below the normal rate. He stares at her, waiting for her to ask him what he wants, tell him to leave her alone or go away like she always does. It's their thing. But the only indication she shows that she's aware of his presence is the brief stiffening of her back before she relaxes and lays her palms flat on the table.

"I'm sorry." Though he says this impatiently, his eyes are narrowed in concern. Her pulse shouldn't be that low especially around him. Even when they're on the same side, it was always just an octave higher than her normal rate which he knows from when he was stalking her and trying to get his necklace back a year ago. He puts his elbows on the table and leans in until when he speaks, she can feel his breath on her face. "We tried to find another way," he explains softly because the fact that she is refusing to meet his gaze now is unnerving. "But it failed and there wasn't time."

She takes a breath and looks up at him with emotionless eyes. He is so used to them being filled with shocked anger, pure hatred and that condescending amusement she's leaned towards around him lately that it stumps him. He stops talking and stares back. For a moment, it seems as though she's searching him for something but then she's pulling her purse back onto her shoulder and getting out of the booth. He grabs a hold of her wrist before she can walk away. She doesn't even clench her fist or try to twist away. She just stands there.

xx

Matt watches from across the room. He saw Bonnie as soon as she walked in, saw her stop and watch Damon before she sat her usual table. He hadn't seen her in weeks. Caroline told him what Stefan and Damon did to save Elena. He had wanted to stop by and help in whatever way that he could but Abby is vampire. That basically makes him food and Bonnie doesn't need to worry about her mom attacking anyone she's friends with. But seeing her now, looking so exhausted, defeated and… He doesn't know how to describe it but that look on her face is telling him he should have taken the risk and gone to see her anyway. He should have stopped by when she refused to answer his calls or tried to catch her at the market or something. She had to eat, right?

His face scrunches into a frown when he sees Damon grab her. Why can't he just leave her alone? He starts toward them with an irritated scoff. He is so sick of Damon thinking he can manhandle the girls. Every other week, he's doing some asshole thing to piss one of them off and intimidate them. Usually, it's Elena or Caroline. He's too good at self-preservation to take things too far with Bon when he knows that she's only keeping him alive for Elena but, apparently, he wants to try his luck today and Bonnie – he usually tries to stay out of the supernatural business but she's still his friend and she shouldn't have to deal with any of this. None of them should.

He keeps thinking back to after Bonnie saved him in the pool, how she told him in that pleading voice that he was the only one who gets to be normal. It isn't fair that Bon will never get to just be Bonnie anymore.

"Let her go, Damon," he says when he's right in front of them. He sets the bin he uses to bus the tables down. His muscles are getting ready for a fight that he knows he'll lose but can't back down from.

"Back off, QB. The witch and I are having a discussion," Damon retorts in a deadly tone.

"I'm sure with your extra vampire senses you can see she doesn't want to talk to you, man. Just leave her alone." Bonnie, who had been staring straight ahead, lifts her eyes up to his then. She has this tired, forlorn expression and he's thinking of something to say that will help, maybe ask how she is, when she whimpers. Like a kicked dog. Bonnie actually whimpers.

Damon is about a millisecond away from doing something violent to get Matt to leave them alone when he hears that soft, guttural cry of agony he would never have expected to come from Bonnie Bennett. It shifts his focus entirely. He is filled with an overwhelming urge to comfort her and protect her, to safeguard her like she were the most precious being he had come across in all of his existence. Matt is simply there, an insignificant bystander, until he lifts his arms to pull Bonnie into a hug. An inhuman growl rumbles in Damon's chest causing Bonnie to finally look at him, her face half-hidden in Matt's chest and her wrist still in his hand. Though she doesn't move to take her hand away, he tightens his grip on her anyway. He doesn't know what he's feeling – there are too many conflicting emotions and thoughts in him right now – but he does know that he absolutely cannot let her go.

She only lets Matt hold her for a moment before she pulls back because being comforted might make her fall apart completely and she can't afford to look weak right now. She's never let herself before and she refuses to start in front of Damon, or at the Grill where any vampire could walk in and find her vulnerable.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Matt asks, ignoring Damon now completely even though he snarls ferociously at his words. Bonnie looks down at Damon and shakes her head.

"I'm fine," she says. Her voice is raspy with disuse as if she hadn't spoken in days. Damon stands up and encroaches on their space.

"Get back to work, busboy," Damon spits.

Matt opens his mouth but Bonnie speaks first, "I'm leaving anyway." She gives him a wan smile and walks away. Having never let go of her wrist, Damon lets her lead him away by it, shooting Matt a smug look as he passes.

xx

They're at her car door. She's in front of it and she wants to set his skin on fire or just yank her arm away from him but she also doesn't want to engage at all. She doesn't want to address him. He's beneath her. He doesn't deserve a milliliter of her energy. So they stand there in silence with Bonnie staring straight ahead, aware of his presence but refusing to acknowledge it, and Damon's eyes fixed on her, willing her to give him just one more look. He needs her to forgive him. No, not just that. He has to make it up to her, show her how much he cherishes and values her. Cherishes? Whatever. It doesn't matter that he doesn't understand it or that it came on so suddenly. It feels as if he's wanted her for centuries.

"Please talk to me," he says. His voice is filled with regret, agony and longing. She doesn't care. She will not engage. That is what he wants. He wants her attention. He wants her to give a shit about his worthless life after he gave not one about her Grams, hers or her mother's. This is the game he plays with Elena: do something unforgivable and act wounded until she forgives him. But she's not like Elena.

She opens up her car door which pushes her back into Damon's chest. He emits a grown and she begins to get in. She looks from her wrist to him with hate-filled eyes. She's not going to forgive him. She wishes he'd go back to pretending he didn't care what she thought like he usually did. By the time she registers that he has let her arm go, he's sitting beside her with a hand on her cheek, his cheek against hers in a caress.

"What are you doing?" she can't help but ask. She expected him to try to gain her forgiveness as he's done that before in the past but this level of attention is strange, even for him. To touch her like a lover and so persistently, this isn't like him at all. He doesn't answer, just cradles her face in his hands so reverently that tears prick her eyes. One slides down her cheek and he catches it on his lips. They stare at each other intently and his mouth is only a millimeter from hers. One move forward from either of them and their lips will finally embrace each other.

Her phone rings and she leans back in her chair away from him as she fishes it out of her pocket. He moves back as well but does not release her. He cannot.

"Hello?"

"Have you gotten your gift yet?"

"Who is this? What gift?"

"Lucy and if you have to ask what, then you must not have spoken around a supernatural creature yet. Funny because aren't all of your friends supernatural? Please don't tell me you're hiding out in your house."

"I'm not. I'm – I'm with Damon now. Do you have something to do with how weird he's acting?"

She can practically hear her smiling through the phone. "I'd hoped you'd get an Original but whatever. He'll protect you now. That's what matters."

"Lucy," she warns. "What did you do?"

"What you wouldn't do yourself for whatever reason. You're a Bennett witch, Bonnie. If you refuse to protect yourself, the rest of us will find a way to do it for you. Now," she drops the censuring tone. "Enjoy your present."

"Explain."

"He'll do whatever you tell him to do but most importantly, he'll protect your life with his own."

Bonnie spares him a disgusted glare. "What if I don't _want_ him?" She asks.

"So kill him and choose your next one more wisely."

The call ends with a click and Bonnie clutches it in her hand, considering Damon, who is still looking at her like… like she's… _loved_, she forces herself to finish the thought.

"Keep your hands to yourself," she says and watches as he quickly obeys. He keeps his patient gaze on her and she sighs. She doesn't want this. Not at all. But can she really just kill him? She sucks her bottom lip between her teeth. He'd do it. He'd kill her without a second thought. He's tried to kill her before, and he would have let her die for Elena. Hell, he'd have killed her in Abby's place if it had come down to that. People die around him, the people she loves, and it doesn't matter to him at all.

She takes a deep breath and steels herself against the guilt threatening to silence her. "Tell everyone you care about what they meant to you." She speaks slowly, her voice low. "Spend all day tomorrow with Stefan. Tell him you're sorry for everything and that you love him." She almost wants to taint his last day especially considering Stefan had an equal part in Abby turning, but she won't because she's better than that, better than them. "Be the best brother you know how to be. When he goes to bed, drive a stake through your heart." He nods and steps out of the car only to turn back.

He bends over and she lowers the window. She gives him a questioning look. He shrugs nervously and says, "I don't want to leave without you know how sorry I really am. You may not believe me, Bonnie, but I admire you. I respect you. And I never wanted to hurt you but it seems like that's all I end up doing." He exhales. "I would never tell you normally," he frowns, unsure of why he is saying all of this now, "but I like you. You may be a judgmental, little witch but you're also smart and brave. You trusting me after everything that happened - me attacking you and your Grams - means a lot to me. I, I care about you." She gasps as the last words are spoken and he disappears.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you for all of the lovely reviews on this. I'm glad people are interested =). I am changing some canon stuff that we know. For this chapter, it'll be about Bonnie's father. I know some of you want Damon to die and some of you don't... XD**

**Chapter 2**

Bonnie's legs face Caroline, who is lying on her side watching her friend, but her shoulders are on the bed as she stares up at the ceiling. Her breath comes in shallow pants. She can't seem to breathe normally no matter which position she lies in. It won't reach and dissipate the tension settled at the base of her stomach. Bonnie has no idea how to break this spell. She's never heard of anything like it and Lucy is refusing to return her calls now and a part of her, well… What is her life expectancy without it? She asks herself resignedly. She won't see graduation. Her father will come back to town to bury whatever is left of her body, assuming whoever kills her was kind enough to leave it by a runner's path, and he too will fall. It won't matter that his refusal to believe in and use his powers has suppressed his abilities. He'll die like all the rest of the witches in this town have.

Logically speaking, Lucy has gifted her with life. Bonnie might be able to turn 20, 30, 40 and so on. She could die a natural death in her rocking chair, telling her grandchildren the story of how she once went up against the Original Hybrid for the millionth time. Her thoughts snag on that. Sadness creeps from her tear ducts to settle around her chest. She could be happy. But other people won't be. Damon will be dead. She sighs. The thought pains her more than she wants it to, more than she can admit to herself it does.

It isn't that she is having second thoughts about her plan for him. She will let him kill himself. She has to. Killing Damon doesn't only benefit her. He's an unapologetic monster. He destroys the people around him and only stops to consider the damage he's inflicted if it somehow affects him. He deserves to die for everything that he's done, not just to her, but to everyone. It shouldn't matter that throughout the past year, even after he'd tried to kill her and she blamed him for her Grams' death, she'd begun to care about him, too. Those feelings don't just disappear because he betrayed her. She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth at the lingering doubt. It's stupid, she tells herself. So she cares about him. He cares about her but look at what he did. He murdered her mother – no, he turned her which, for a witch, is worse. Caring about someone means nothing. It changes nothing. Tomorrow night, Damon will die and Bonnie will simply have to chase her thoughts of guilt with the countless drunken college and teen-aged women who will live in his place.

Caroline flops onto her back and asks, "Are you going to tell me or not? I'm freaking out here." Her gaze slides from Bonnie's chin to her eyes. "Is it about Abby?" She asks in a quieter voice.

She released her lip slowly and takes yet another unsatisfying breath. "I want to tell you something but you can't tell anyone else. It has to be between you and me."

"Everything is, Bonnie." Her friend nods and Caroline's arm lifts so her hand can find Bonnie's. Their fingers intertwine and she pulls their joined hands onto her stomach. Bonnie rolls onto her side, propping her head on her elbow, and Caroline turns her head to look at her.

"Bonnie?" she asks, concerned. Bonnie shakes her head slowly and shifts closer until she can lay it onto Caroline's shoulder. Caroline puts her arm around her back comfortingly. "What is it?"

"I'm scared."

The hand rubbing soothing circles on Bonnie's back clutches her protectively before it picks up the same steady rhythm. "What happened?" Her body tenses. Her mind races with the possibilities. Could Damon and Stefan have done something else? Is Klaus back to threatening Elena? Is Abby threatening to leave?

There is a long pause and Caroline waits, knowing that Bonnie is deciding on word choice. It's a habit she's used to.

"I'm going to kill Damon. Well, I already have, really. He's just not dead yet." Bonnie exhales and her next breath comes easier and deeper. She tells Caroline everything from the weird way Damon was acting at The Grill to finding out about the spell.

"You can't do this, Bonnie," she says. Bonnie pulls away to sit up. Her back is turned to Caroline and she scoots to the edge of the bed, her legs swung over the edge. Caroline sits up as well and puts a hand on Bonnie's back. "I understand why you want to. Believe me, I do, but he only did it to save Elena. They didn't have a choice."

Bonnie whirls her head around, her mouth parted, her brows lifted and her eyes wide in disbelief. "There was a choice! They could have come to me. If I couldn't figure something out, I would have turned but turning my _mother?"_

Caroline shakes her head. "You wouldn't have turned, Bonnie." She drops her eyes. "You hate vampires."

She sighs and fully faces Caroline to take her hand again. "I don't hate you."

"But you hate what I am. It's okay." She shrugs. "It's the whole witch, servant of nature, vampire abomination thing. I get it."

She scoffs. "Please don't act like I'm just another prejudiced witch. I had no problem with Stefan until he helped turn Abby. I saw you kill someone. It was a lot to handle, but I'm here now. I may not want to be a vampire but if I knew what they would have done instead, I would have let them do it." Her eyes bore into Caroline's. "This isn't about me hating vampires. Do you think that if Abby had left that Damon wouldn't have turned me? That Damon and Stefan wouldn't kill you or Matt or Tyler or anyone else to save themselves? To save Elena?"

Her expression is amused but she doesn't find it funny. She realizes now how silly it was of her to believe in either of them and she finds it sad that Caroline still does. "We don't know what's going to happen or how Klaus will retaliate on us for trying to kill him," she continues. "All we know is they will do whatever it takes to protect Elena. I have to do what needs to be done to save the rest of us. You might hate me for that but –"

"No, no," Caroline interrupts squeezing Bonnie's hand and sliding closer to her. "I could never hate you. You're my _best _friend. I could never hate you." She waits for that to sink in before she adds, "No matter how much I don't want you to do this."

Bonnie doesn't respond. She doesn't want to argue. She just leans back into Caroline's arms and lets her stroke her hair. She closes her eyes, breathing in and out slowly. Before the vampires came, Bonnie was usually the one taking care of her but Caroline, unknowingly, had a way of giving back as much as she took. She loves so deeply and unconditionally, something Bonnie, alone apart from her Grams, needed then. She craves that affection more so now that Grams is gone. Her last conscious thought is that she wouldn't mind having Caroline protect her if it didn't mean taking her will away. Any remaining tension leaves her body, and she falls asleep quickly.

xx

Damon isn't a very emotionally intelligent person evidenced by him being the only schmuck this side of the river to ever believe that Katherine actually cared about him… and subsequently believing himself to be in love with her doppelganger. He was a starved child turning its head into any breast it found, regardless of whether the milk was stale and hardening. Somewhere, far back in his mind, he knew this. He knew that Elena could never love him and that Katherine only she pretended he did. But he had yet to acknowledge that he himself did not love them in turn. He still thought himself the hopeless romantic, living in anticipation and willing to die for love. And worse yet, he was absolutely positive that he could not be happy without Elena or Katherine, if she ever gave a damn, one day turning to him with love shining in their eyes, finally agreeing to love him back.

But the spell cuts through all of his bullshit. It makes him follow Bonnie's instructions even when it contradicts a lie he's told, a lie he's let himself believe wholeheartedly. This is why after he's said his heartfelt goodbyes to Elena, Jeremy, and every other Tom, Dick and Harriet he had found himself giving an iota about (some, Matt in particular, he merely pat on the shoulder and said "so long. You were fun to fuck with" to), he found himself searching out Katherine. She's his last stop before Stefan, not because he loved her. It was nowhere near the pure, unfailing love that he could have had countless times had he only allowed himself to love and be loved in that way. But it's almost impossible to spend 145 years loving, chasing and living for someone else without caring to some extent.

She's difficult to track down especially in the few hours he has free before he rests up for his day of brotherly bonding. He's called eight people and has gone from sipping his blood-laced Bourbon to gulping and refilling it anxiously between calls. He isn't worried about her. She always manages to keep herself safe no matter who else dies in her place. he hangs up on the ninth person who tells him she hasn't seen Katherine since whenever. Katherine moves underneath the radar, holding everyone's attention and being completely invisible. This is how she's made people fear gaining her notice while hiding from Klaus. His hand tightens on his glass and when he goes to take his next sip, he downs the rest of the contents and slams it down onto the table.

His phone vibrates on his lap and he answers with an uninterested, "Yeah?"

I thought it would take at least a decade of Elena choosing Stefan before you went back to stalking me," she said in a slightly amused albeit tired tone.

"Katherine." He strains his ears to determine where she might be, but all he can make out is the impatient tapping of her heel as she silence continues. "I wanted to say –"

"Where is Stefan? Still cozying up to my double?" She interrupts. She can tell from that he's about to profess something she doesn't care to hear.

"Out," he replies tersely. "Listen, you aren't my favorite person. You strung me along and had me searching for a way to release you from the tomb when you were already out," he begins, his voice rising an octave as he spoke.

She lets out an exasperated sigh. "We've been over this." He takes a slow breath. There's no need to antagonize her.

"I want you to know I still care about you, whatever that's worth." His voice takes on a wry, almost flirtatious air. He wants to say more, to really express that even if she had never loved him, her existence alone had kept him going for over a century. Stefan had helped him give in to the urge to feed but it was Emily, in the dead of the night, telling him she knew a way to get Katherine back to him if he saved her children, who had stopped him from taking off his ring, walking into the sun and dying in the melodramatic way he was about to. He knows now that Emily had played on his devotion to Katherine to save her children but the effect Katherine had had on him was there nevertheless.

"Very little," she says dismissively.

His cell phone beeps, a signal that the call had been ended.

xx

She wakes up the next day alone in bed and the thought stays with her though out the day: Damon is going to die tonight. Now that she has had some time to sit with the idea, she is more comfortable with it. She had been worried about Elena hating her but, she chuckles darkly to herself, Elena is incapable of hating anyone. She couldn't even stay mad at Damon for a month after he almost permanently killed Jeremy. She forgave both Stefan and Damon for almost turning her into a vampire. Out of everyone who will be affected by this, Elena is the one who understands and accepts people despite their dark impulses. So, she will be angry and Bonnie will be unapologetic and they will simply move past it somehow.

She's too busy making sure the part of her that will regret this, the part of her that wonders if her Grams is disappointed that she's become someone who could murder someone in cold blood, how this will change her and if she will be able to forgive herself, to notice that the house is too quiet when she goes into her Grams' door. Abby is usually playing music or some TV show loudly. Abby says that she's practicing drowning out the extra sounds her vampire hearing gets her, but Bonnie thinks it's more than that. She knocks on the door but doesn't wait for Abby to answer before she pushes it open. She calls out for Abby and waits. She looks around the first floor and finds it empty. No blaring speakers, no slurping on a blood bag Caroline gave her. Bonnie reaches out with her powers, her heart beating faster when she finds that no one is there. She rushes up the stairs to Abby's room and on her bed is a letter.

Her shoulders slump and she makes herself to stay upright. She walked to the bed, picked up the letter and sat down on its edge. _Bonnie_, she reads, _I need some time to adjust. I want to do that here, with you. I want to get to know you but I don't want to risk hurting you. _She takes a deep breath. Her eyes are wet with tears she refuses to shed. _I'll come back when I can trust myself. _She can see that Abby struggled with how to sign off. She can't say any endearments because they aren't that close, so Bonnie is left with a simple _Take care, Abby._

She crumbles the paper in her hand and tosses it into the waste basket. It bounces off of the rim and lands in the corner. She tsks and puts her phone to her ear without looking at the screen when it vibrates.

"Hello?"

"Bonnie," Elena's frantic voice starts, "I, I know that you're still mad at him. I get it but Stefan called and… there's something wrong with Damon." She hears Elena inhale sharply. When she speaks again, her voice is worried but has lots the panicked edge and is trying to convey as much seriousness as it can. "He tried to kill himself."

She glances outside. She hadn't realized how late it was. It would make sense. Abby wouldn't take the daylight ring when she'd tried to give it to her so she would have had to wait until dark to leave.

"Please, Bonnie."

She feels the weight of the past year: the loneliness, the times she's failed, the people she's lost. It encircles her heart and tightens until the pain forces a gasp from her mouth.

"Bonnie?"

She sniffs , straightening her back. She wants to kill him. She wants to make him suffer for what he's taken away from her. Abby might even have stayed if she hadn't been turned, but then she hears Stefan's muffled voice in the background. It's full of the agony Bonnie feels as he asks Damon to stop whatever it is he's doing. He's begging. And her heart gives another painful twist. Is that how she would sound if she had gotten a chance to ask Abby to stay, to not leave her alone?

"I'm on my way."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**Two weeks earlier**

"I don't want to know, Katherine," Lucy says with a sigh sitting down on the porch swing and twisting the cap off her bottled water roughly. Katherine saunters over and Lucy rolls her eyes. There aren't any men around to watch her antics but Katherine always has to keep up the sexy vixen act. Those walls of hers used to be endearing. Maybe it was all of those fantasy novels she'd read as a teenager where the villain was really just some poor, wandering, unloved soul that made her want to get past them. She'd wanted to help save her from Klaus, the Salvatores, from herself. But that was then and partnerships never last long with Katherine. She'd done her research. She knew that much going in, so she shouldn't feel sorry now that she can no longer invite her into her home, she thinks, taking a swig and cutting her eyes to the side. "You shouldn't be here." She doesn't bother asking how Katherine got her new address.

"Oh, you know I couldn't go on without you by my side."

"We aren't friends." Their eyes meet and Katherine lifts an eyebrow, her eyes flat. Lucy smiles. "And there's no one you can't go on without."

She tilts her head, conceding. "True." They sit in silence for a few minutes. Lucy lifts her legs onto the banister. She bends and straightens her knees to keep the swing moving at a steady pace. Katherine crosses her feet at her ankles and lifts them slightly off the ground. "You betrayed me."

"I did." She nods and takes another sip. She suddenly notices how dark it's gotten and her eyes flicker down the street, looking for any sign of traffic. There's a slight furrow to her brow when she looks down at her watch. "I don't work against Bennett witches. You knew this." Katherine nods. She takes a clump of her hair into her hands and fingers through the wavy ends idly. Lucy waits and then asks, "Why are you still here?"

"I told you. I need a witch."

She always needs a witch. Every vampire wants a witch in their back pocket doing all of their dirty work: dropping enemies for them to rip the hearts out of, finding information they're too lazy to do the leg work to get and donating just a little blood to make them stronger than the other vampires their age. Witches are and have always been in high demand especially for vampires in trouble like Katherine.

"How do I know –"

"I learned my lesson," she says sweetly.

Lucy's eyes narrow. She holds out her palm. "Give me your hand." Katherine does so immediately and Lucy closes her eyes. "Dea m'entendre. Revelare quod est. Protégé me et mea. Revelare intentus," she says under her breath.Katherine's memories shoot across her eyes.

_She bangs against the wall, rock falling away but the door immovable. "You need me!" She screams. Her breath is ragged from fear and her eyes stare into the darkness. _She has never seen Katherine like this and her mind recoils from the image. Her hand clutches Katherine's as the scene shifts. _"Don't look so glum, Katerina," a man says lifting her chin gently. "The fun is just beginning. He walks toward the door, grabbing a jacket. "Again." Katherine cries out as she plunges a knife into her leg. She exhales when she takes it out and takes a deep breath before she slams it back into her skin. _There is the expected pain in her eyes but also a hatred Lucy recognizes. That man was Klaus.

"_But if you don't let yourself feel," she says, "you won't be able to do what I need you to do next._

"_What's that?" he asks._

_Her gaze is intense and she leans in, breathing in a commanding voice, "Get mad."_

Her eyes flicker open to find Katherine's. She's watching her closely. Lucy lets go of her hand shakily and tries to calm her pulse. She saw more than she would have liked to. She couldn't reconcile that Katherine with the feisty, fearsome woman sitting beside her. She knows what Katherine wants though. She inhales counting to 10 and exhales slowly. She shifts until she faces Katherine fully. She shakes her head.

"What did you see?"

"You want vengeance and I can't help you get it. I'm sorry."

Katherine stands up and walks away, her hands on her hips. "I'm not the only one in danger here." She smiles deviously. "Abby Bennett was just turned into a vampire."

"What?" She asks on a gasp, rising as well.

"Yep. You see, Klaus is still alive and everyone wants him dead. There was a spell drawing magic from your line. I don't know all of the details. I wasn't there, but they needed to break it and poor Abby was in the wrong place, completely unprotected." Her tone is flippant but Lucy can sense, with the effects of the spell still in place, that she is telling the truth. "And Bonnie's right where you left her. Caught in the middle."

Her mouth twists. "How exactly does helping you get revenge on Klaus protect Bonnie?"

"Lucy, you don't need me to tell you that. Klaus is a danger to Elena and you know you servants of nature, always standing between the lion and its meal." A car turns onto the street and Lucy gives Katherine a warning look. "What? I don't get to meet the new girl?"

"Leave." A mischievous smile lights Katherine's face and then she is gone but Lucy can feel her watching. The car pulls into the driveway and her girlfriend parks the car and steps out with a pizza.

"Got your favorite," she calls.

"Yum." She forces a smile onto her face even while her thoughts focus on Bonnie and how her hand had grabbed onto hers, begging her for answers. The guilt forms a knot in her stomach.

"What's wrong?" Alex asks.

She shakes her head. "Witch business." She says tilting her head for a kiss. Their mouths meld together moving slowly against each other. She nibbles on her bottom lip before sucking it into her mouth eliciting a soft whimper. She breaks the kiss, pecking her again before pulling back completely.

Alex's eyes stay on Lucy's lips. "Is everything okay?"

She nods. "Just a complicated spell I have to do. Dinner first though."

xx

She would have preferred Bonnie's blood or the blood of a closer relative but she doesn't have that and Lucy has never been one to dwell on the things she does not have. She lights the flame with a thought and cuts a long line across her palm. She holds her hand over a small metallic bowl with squaw vine, wormwood, blackberry leaf , high John the conqueror root and garlic cloves crushed together at its bottom. When it is at its brim, she wipes her hand on a washcloth. The wound is healed by the time it reaches her wrist. She swirls her finger into the mixture and inserts it into her mouth, sucking gently. She picks up the bowl and tilts it over the candle, letting a small amount trickle onto the flame until it burns white.

"Sanguine sanguis clamat, et hoc vocant ego mittere, dea. Pro filia, dea, Pet a te hoc scutum."

The flame shoots higher and Lucy lights the mixture of blood and herbs on fire before lifting the bowl to her lips. The fire extinguishes and she drinks the contents slowly, her eyes closed. When she finishes, she licks her lips and lifts her lids. Her eyes are completely white. She pours the wax from the candle into the bowl and finishes the incantation.

"Promissum sit, dea, votum solemne, mon seul verbum potest mutare de cap de ce sort."

Lightning strikes through the open window into Lucy's healed palm. She does not feel pain, only a warmth she's always associated with Joanna: safety. She smiles to herself, murmuring her gratitude while her eyes return to normal and the mark of the spell, a scarab, stays on her palm.

xx

** Present-Day**

She doesn't want to be here. She doesn't want to be part of any of this but that never stopped her from being stuck in the middle of it all before. And she's not lucky enough for what she wants to suddenly matter now. She doesn't bother knocking as she can hear the scuffle inside from the porch. She rounds the corner and separates the brothers with a wave of her arm. She takes a soothing breath. She'd practiced saying this in the car ten times on the way over so she could get in and out of the boarding house as quickly as possible.

"Don't kill yourself, Damon. Don't hurt yourself or anyone else. And please," she pauses to meet his frustrated eyes. He is pushing against the invisible barrier she erected to keep him from speeding over to her. Her mouth twists in distaste. The last thing she needs or can deal with right now is Damon, she mentally spits, coming any closer to her than he has to be. "Stay away from me."

He tilts his head in a gesture that begs her to see reason. "How can I protect you if I'm not _with _you?" She tsks softly and opens her mouth to tell him she doesn't need anyone protecting her, especially him, but Stefan cuts across to ask, "Since when do you want to protect Bonnie?"

Damon ignores his brother in favor of starting a staring match with Bonnie. "Since the witch needs more protecting than anyone else in this town." Her eyes narrow and he lifts his brows mockingly.

Stefan watches the exchange and then his eyes are intent on Bonnie, watching her suspiciously. His expression holds none of the gratitude he should be feeling now that his brother will live. He takes a step forward, not failing to notice Damon's immediate tensing into a defensive stance. "Damon follows your orders now?" He asks her. "What did you do to him?"

She tilts her chin up defiantly. "I didn't do anything," she says. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. He'll live now." She turns around and starts to leave, still keeping the barrier up so Damon doesn't follow her.

"I'm sorry," Stefan says from behind her. She freezes and shifts her neck to look at him over her shoulder. He speaks hesitantly and with the same practiced lilt to his voice that she had though he does not sound nearly as regretful and ashamed as she knows the Stefan he was a year ago would have. The Stefan in front of her now is still pretending not to care, trying to fool everyone into believing that he can't be saved, that he's worse than Damon and who he was to them is no longer inside of him. It makes her wonder why he's bothering to apologize at all. Her ears tune him out while her mind searches for a possible motive. Damon uses her distraction to sidle over to her. He gets as close to her as he can without touching her which is somehow more disturbing to her when she is taken out of her reverie. He's still following the other order she'd given him last night not to touch her.

She takes a step away from him to create some space and looks toward the exit route. "You did what you had to do. To save Elena." Her voice sounds bitter and disheartened even to her own ears and she finds herself cringing. She shakes her head and swallows.

"If there had been any other way," he begins.

She whirls around to give him a hard stare. She loves Elena. She's like a sister but if the originals had died, thousands if not millions of lives would have been saved in the long run. And maybe everything that was lost this year would have meant something. "There's always another way, Stefan," she scolds.

"We tried –"

"Not hard enough!" She screams. A sob threatens to escape and she has to close her eyes against the tears. She brings her hands to her face. She swore she wouldn't do this. She shakes her head again, her jaw set, her face scrunching in accusation. "You turned my mother, Stefan. My _mother._ Do you even know what that means? Do you care that she lost more than her humanity? She lost her connection to the earth, to nature." Her voice breaks again but when he looks up at her, she is the picture of composure. "You aren't allowed to apologize for that. Not just because nothing you do or say will ever be enough but because you aren't sorry. Neither of you are!" She glares at them both. "If Elena was in danger today, you would turn me, you would kill Caroline, you would kill anyone you had to to protect her," she says fiercely. "Caroline, Alaric and all of the rest of them might think we're all on the same side but –"

"We are on the same side," he says moving closer. "Bonnie, please. We never meant to hurt you."

She laughs harshly and continues as if he had not spoken. "I know better. I'm trying to keep everyone alive and you're only trying to protect Elena. If you can save one or two of us so she doesn't spend the night sobbing, sure, you'll do it," she nods. "But be honest. You don't care about me." Her eyes slide to Damon. "And you won't either as soon as I break the spell." She stops his attempt to argue his case with a look. She takes a breath, squaring her shoulders and pushing her purse strap further onto her shoulder. There is a lengthy silence in which she is sure one of them will say something that will make her change her mind and have Damon kill Stefan before driving that stake into his own heart, but she is wrong. Neither of them speak and Bonnie would have thought she'd shamed them into realizing how horrible their priorities are but she knows better than to think they're capable of that. She resists the urge to give them each a parting aneurysm but does slam the door shut when she leaves.

xx


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Bonnie doesn't like to tell people about her problems or being taken care of. She's the one who does that for her friends, and when the roles are reversed, it makes her feel awkward. She can't quite find where she fits like she can when one of them is suffering. She doesn't want to see any of them in pain, of course not. But there's a certain satisfaction that comes with being the only person who could make Elena stop focusing on her grief when her parents died and pay attention to trivial things until the pain passed a little, from being the one who Caroline, Matt, Tyler and even Jeremy sometimes came to for advice. She likes to feel needed. You don't abandon someone that feels necessary to your emotional survival. To give the type of advice that guides without controlling, you have to be observant. So, Bonnie has gotten used to watching the people around her, learning their nuances. She knows from the slight narrowing of Elena's eyes when she's hiding something and from the clench of Tyler's jaw if he had a fight with his father.

She watches, so she figures out the basics of the spell fairly quickly on her own. It apparently molds itself to the personality of whoever is supposed to be protecting her at the time, because she only met Lucy once but she knows this isn't what she wanted for her. He's only supposed to be protecting her but somehow he's worked out that that means he needs to be within a forty foot radius of wherever she is. He only stays that far away, because that's as far as she can burst his blood vessels without it being a strain on her, a fact he learned the hard way. He takes advantage of when she is asleep to come closer, though. In the morning, she finds different types of vegetables and fruits on her porch with notes like _your blood smelled sweet today, Judgy _and _you're going to kill yourself on all that fried crap you get at the Grill. _They make her shudder but she eats the stuff anyway.

He also doesn't have to listen to every order she gives him. He won't stay away from her because he thinks it's in her best interest for him to stay close. That follows that he knows she's safer with him dead. She'd feel a little bad for him if the truth of it didn't make her want to research ways to permanently disfigure vampires.

It's only been a week since the spell was cast but Damon's change in behavior is affecting everyone else. Elena asks her every day how breaking it is coming along. Alaric even texted her last night to ask if he could help in any way. He must miss his drinking buddy. Stefan doesn't call or text but sometimes when she's eating lunch with Caro at the Grill (where she allows Damon to come within thirty feet so he can sit at the opposite end of the restaurant, she's nice like that), she catches him shooting a pining glance Damon's way. It's worse to her that Damon is listening in on every conversation she has now. A cute boy from class, Chris, offers to go over the midterm review with her. Twenty minutes later, they're not talking about Language Acquisition and are getting to know each other. He's tall and human and looks like Alexander Ludwig with much fuller lips. Caroline is giving her the nod of approval when he goes to the bathroom and doesn't come back. When she looks around the room, Damon catches her eye and gives her an unapologetic shrug. Her fists clench and she decides to leave when she magically upturns her pitcher of water. This is the first time she considers making the trip to see Lucy in person.

xx

Bonnie leaves school and her breath is easy. She actually stops and closes her eyes to savor the moment, breathing in deeply and feeling the Earth's energy cradle her. The light breeze ruffles the hair on her shoulders. The air is light and perfect and she doesn't want to leave this moment, because she does not get to feel like this. Not since before her Grams died which means something must be wrong. Something is off but the tension in her jaw, neck and her hands has eased up and she just wants to be this comfortable for a little while longer. She feels someone enter her peaceful bubble. The energy around her doesn't change or charge; it warms her center and she swears she can smell White Diamonds, her Grams' favorite perfume. She opens her eyes and Chris is there.

"What are you doing?" She shakes her head with a smile.

"Nothing, just enjoying the day. Where'd you go off to last night?" She knows but talking last night was nice; she wants more conversations like that – with normal teenagers who complain about exams and curfews and other human things.

He shrugs. "Home. Your ex-boyfriend," he says the term with a question, "tried to compel me to leave. I figured it'd be more trouble for you if I stayed."

"You know about vampires?" She asks lowly, taking a step forward.

His brows furrow. "Yeah," he nods slowly. She casts a glance around them to make sure no one could be listening in on their conversation. He smiles, watching her. Stefan and Elena are having a tense conversation by one of the lunch tables. She's brushing her hair out of her face and behind her ear when she looks to Bonnie. Tyler throws his and Caroline's backpacks into the backseat before he pulls her by her waist closer for a kiss. The vampires don't have their hearing tuned into this conversation but Bonnie knows Damon must be somewhere listening in. She searches for him and grins when she sees him. Chris follows her gaze. Rebekah has Damon pushed up against a tree in the shadows. His face is pulled in a grimace, his hand and Rebekah's hidden from view between them.

"How long have you known about them?" He asks to bring her focus back to him. Her eyes meet his.

"Not here," she says after a moment. She wants to know what he knows and, more importantly, how. With all of the things that happen in this town, somehow they've managed to keep the willfully ignorant residents unaware of the supernatural craziness that happens here. Everyone is content with believing that animal attacks have simply increased in the past few years and that Animal Control is working on determining a reason for this spike, but Chris is looking at her as if she's silly for not thinking he'd know. "Are you doing anything today?"

He shifts his weight and tilts his head. "Not yet."

"Do you want to come over in a couple of hours?"

He reaches his hand up to her cheek. "Eyelash," he explains softly before rubbing his fingers together to let it be blown away. "See you at six." She takes a breath and nods, watching him walk away. The farther he is, the less she feels light and airy. She frowns.

"He's cute," Elena says coming to her side.

"He knows abou – a lot about language. He's helping me study." It's not completely a lie and she refuses to put words to why she doesn't want to tell Elena that Chris knows about vampires. It isn't her fault innocent people have a habit of dying around her, and Chris is an innocent. She can feel it.

Elena nods, ducks her head and looks at her through lowered lashes. "Listen, Bonnie. I know you're trying as hard as you can to break the spell… it's just that we miss him. Stefan won't admit but he does, and we need him to focus so we can kill Klaus." Bonnie doesn't know how to respond to that because she is doing all she can short of finding Lucy and demanding answers, so she doesn't. Elena pulls her bottom lip into her mouth and Bonnie sighs.

"I want him to stop stalking me as much as you do but there's nothing I can do right now. Lucy's not answering her phone, and I don't know anything about what she used to do the spell. If I try to break it without knowing that, there'll be consequences and we have enough to deal with."

"I know. Like I said, I just -"

"Miss him. Yeah, I know," she says sardonically.

"Bonnie, I," she stumbles.

"Forget it. It's fine," she says quickly. Elena knows it isn't but Bonnie is already waving goodbye and heading to her car.

xx

Chris never shows. She waits for about an hour because they never did set a time and then texts him to ask when he will be by. He doesn't respond and Bonnie knows that she could be completely wrong but that's highly unlikely. Damon always has a way of finding out whatever it is that she wants and making sure she doesn't have it. He does it so effortlessly. It's just a byproduct of all of his actions, but it happens nonetheless. And now he will do it with purpose because this damned spell has his focus more intent on her than it ever has been before. She curses under her breath, grabs her purse and heads over to the Salvatore house.

"Ah, you came," Damon says when he hears her bang the door open. She gives him an aneurysm before he can say anything else and rushes to Chris's side. He's tied up to a chair in chains, like Mason was. There's blood oozing from his nose and a gash in his chest where his heart is. His eye is swollen shut. She holds his face in her hands to perform quick healing spell and jolts away when she feels it – his pain. It twists her insides and she puts a hand to her stomach to stop herself from being sick.

"Oh my God."

"I'll be fine," he grunts against the chains, signaling her to free him. Her hands have moved to his shoulders where the barrier of cloth lessens the crippling energy he's exuding.

"What is _wrong_ with you?"

He lifts and drops his shoulders, brushing the lint from the carpet off his black jeans. "He's not who he says he is." He lifts his bloodied hand. "No heart to pull out. Now," he takes a step closer, "I would say I told you so but you haven't let me anywhere _near_ you in days." His eyes are wild with accusation and Bonnie rolls her eyes. She doesn't want to deal with him. "Don't," Damon warns, zipping to her side and gently pushing her away from him. He looks at her in anger for a moment and then his eyes drop to her lips and fill with something else.

"Don't touch me," she reminds him. He exhales lightly but does as she says, his clean hand hovering a centimeter from the strands of her hair. She rolls her eyes and attempts to move around him when he grabs her and pushes her to the ground. He lets his weight fall on her, and she gasps, struggling against him.

"I've been thinking." He speaks lowly, his voice calm and intimate. She hears the chains clang against each other but her wide eyes can't see anything but the floor and Damon's face inches from her own. She's reminded of when he'd asked for her necklace last year, how afraid she was then and her gaze hardens.

"Get off me," she orders.

"No." She brows lift and she's about to say the spell that will physically remove him when he brings her head up an inch and back on the ground with a thud. She groans in pain, her fists pushing harder against his chest.

"This is what I mean. You're too human, too fragile." He frowns at her. "I can't protect you like this. You're too breakable." He makes his point again by curling his hand in her hair and pulling, making her wince. He caresses her cheek with the back of his other hand. She recoils from him and his eyes tighten. "But I can make you strong." His eyes are pleading, begging her to understand and she does. It didn't take her long to know he would think this but she thought she had a few more weeks at least. He could make her strong, safe from cancer and car accidents, from illnesses. He could turn her into a vampire.

No. She inhales sharply. "_Meus industria ferre…" _Her spell breaks off when he twists her arm painfully.

"Don't do any spells on me."

_Sanguine vasa erupit. _She continues to repeat it in her head, focusing through her pain as she's had to do in the past. He's on the ground twitching before she finishes saying it a third time. She takes a deep breath. She feels weak but she can't explain why. It's a spell she's done every day for the past week. Too many times a day now that she thinks about it. She's overusing her magic, and sure enough, when she lifts her hand to her face, there is a trickle of blood coming from her nose. Damn it. She can't do this anymore.

"Bonnie," Chris calls.

Her breathing is heavy; she slaps her hand down against the air. "What are you?"

His light blue eyes pierce hers. "I'm a vampire." She retreats. "I'm not going to hurt you, Bonnie. You know that." She shakes her head at him, her eyes darting to Damon's unconscious form on the floor and back to him.

"How are you a vampire?" She'd touched him. She touches everyone new she meets now specifically because of this. She can't trust anyone, and she doesn't have the luxury of not being on her guard. If she ever lets herself relax, they use that moment of weakness to kidnap her and threaten her to get some spell done. Or try to feed off her if they don't know what she is. She can't afford to be trusting, so she isn't. When she touched him, she didn't get the feeling of death she does when she first touched Damon, or Stefan and Caroline. She'd only been enveloped by this warmth that was altogether different from when she'd grabbed Lucy but told her the same thing – that she could trust him.

Damon stirs. "How about I tell you after you let me go?" She hesitates but breaks the chain with her magic.

"Please don't make me regret this. And I'm not giving you any of my blood to heal."

He chuckles. "I'll heal on my own and then I'll hunt."

She stops with her face close to his and his arm around her shoulders. "Hunt what?"

He laughs and then groans, his hand coming up to his chest. "Not humans, don't worry." The frown keeps her lips downturned but she straightens her knees to help him up. Once he's standing, he drops down and places his hands on Damon's chest. His fingers are clenched on the flesh. If he wasn't a vampire, Damon would have bruises.

"Let's go," she says. He shakes his head, still facing Damon. A second later, she sees it. His face heals, the spilled blood being pulled back into his body where it can be. She walks around them to see his chest, and the wound is stitching itself together there as well. She looks to Damon. His skin is darkening into an ashy blue. "Stop."

He does, his hands on the ground and his lids closed. He shudders despite himself and he looks up at her, his expression fierce. He's standing in the blink of an eye and she stumbles back, suddenly afraid of him. He holds out his hand. "Come on then."

xx

I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry, I know this is short and I haven't updated in forever but hope you enjoy it all the same.**

Chapter 5

Bonnie pins him with a mixture of disbelief and amusement. "A psychic vampire? Really?" He raises an eyebrow and she can see how it must seem ridiculous to be skeptical of anything with so many supernatural beings in this town. But believing in different species of these soul-sucking, murderous creatures is asking a lot of more, more than she can spare right now. It would explain the strange calming, almost exultant energy she felt when she was around him. He'd been manipulating her. Of course. The realization makes her feel suddenly lonely and small standing several feet away from Chris outside of the boardinghouse.

He sits down on the staircase seemingly at ease with his legs wide and leaning back on the top landing. He motions with his eyes for her to join him. She leans against the banister instead, as far away from him as she can be within hearing distance. "The story goes," he began, "that a widow named Magda had a daughter, her only child, fall ill with consumption." His tone is soothing; the words come from him like a bedtime story told a thousand times, practiced and melodic. "Magda was beautiful and though she was past her childbearing years, many of the men, married and single, coveted her. She took lovers but refused to remarry. She could not bear to open to open her heart to another man and have her heart break again.

"There was only one person she allowed herself to love fully, her daughter, Freya. When Freya became sick with the illness she had seen many in the town perish from, she sent those men she had favor with to search for a cure on the promise that she would wed whoever saved her child."

"Stop," she says taking in a shaky breath and blinking the collection of tears away. "I can guess what happened next." Her eyes meet his and he cocks his head.

"Can you?" He asks softly. Her brow quivers uncertainly.

His stare is penetrating and she feels weak beneath its weight. She breaks contact and crosses her arms, lifting her chin up. "Someone found a witch who turned Freya into a _vampire _because that's _so _much more preferable than dead, feeding off humans like some parasite, and that guy got Magda as a fucking prize. Happily ever after," she says disgusted.

He nods. "Close. Who found Catalya Bennett is a mystery but whoever did paid for Freya's life with his own."

"Bennett?" She asks turning her body to face his.

"Bennett." The brows are firmly knit together know, her lips parted. She nods her head at him signaling for him to continue. "Catalya was the most powerful Bennett, more powerful than Emily. She bottled the man's essence and used it to guide her across country to Magda who would surely be with Freya. Catalya told Freya that this gift of life would have consequences."

_Magic never comes without consequences_, Bonnie thought.

"Freya would have as normal a life as she could, able to eat human food, have children, grow old… die. But she would also need energy that she could take from nature or the emotions of the humans around her to sustain her life. She would need to feed and, before her death, she would have to create another like her with each of her descendants being tied to the Bennett witch of that time who most needed help."

"If her descendants, i.e. you, can only feed from nature and human emotions, what was that you did to Damon?" she asks.

He stands and begins to walk toward her. "Bonnie, a witch's natural enemy is a vampire of Esther and Mikael's line. They've manipulated, murdered and done everything within their power to have a witch, especially a Bennett witch, under their control. Our job is to protect you from them as best we can so you don't have to always use magic. Do you really think that some extra abilities wouldn't be added over the years to make it easier for us to fight against them?" He is now standing only a foot away from her. His voice softens. "My kind has been on your side since we were created and I know it doesn't seem like it with everything you've gone through here on your own but it's true."

She shakes her head and closes the distance between them, her eyes hard. "You're right. It doesn't. Grams, everything that's happened to me and now my mom," she stops to force the emotion out of her voice. "Where were these psychic vampires when Damon ripped out my throat, or when I was ready to sacrifice myself to kill Klaus? Where?" She pushes against his unyielding chest. He steps back and gives her room anyway.

"I don't know," he admits. "I don't know."


End file.
